Sugoi monogatari, aniki.

SHARING TIME: ღ - Reading SW fic still takes up the majority of my fic reading time and everyone should join me because it's an old enough fandom that it actually has a lot of the good shit I'm looking for and a lot of it! This time with a bit more variety rather than just the PT. o/

AND ONTO THE RECS: Star Wars - 35 Fanfics

→ legacies by lupinely, rey & luke, 6.1k(Rey and Luke, immediately following the events of Episode VII.) A gorgeous look at the immediate days after TFA, where Rey and Luke first start to move forward, to figure out what comes next. The amount of emotion laid down here, the lovely look at both of these characters, and the beginnings of exploring Rey's abilities, what they mean for her, are all exactly what I wanted from fandom with these two characters. It's a perfect coda to the movie, touching on all that came before while still moving towards the future, making me so eager for the What's next? that I turn to fic for.

→ bleeding out your days in the river of time by arestlesswind, leia & everyone, 1.5kShe never had the chance to say goodbye. To any of them. There's a line in this fic--How easy it was for everyone to leave. Leia always stays.--that sums up everything about this fic and this character, how she stays strong and keeps being this solid pillar, all while this huge weight of loss and pain and everything else is placed on her. It's a heartwrenching look at Leia's character after the movie, yet another thing that I came to the fandom for exactly this.

→ Visiting Hours by TheDarknessFactor, rey & poe & finn & leia & kylo, 6.6kThey all have their ways of recovering. Rey uses her hands to build and repair. Poe flies away from his dreams. Kylo Ren sits in a cell and tries to ignore the woman who calls herself his mother. Post-TFA, AU. I didn't know I needed this AU so badly until I got it. Where Kylo Ren is taken back by the Resitance and everyone just tries to keep moving after everything that's happened. The amount of tension here, the sheer weight on all of these characters, is beautifully done, it's so heavy but without being melodramatic, it fits with the movie itself. The scenes between Leia and Kylo are absolutely perfect, but so is absolutely everything with Rey as she figures out where she's going next and she's just so very Rey. It's a look at the moments in between the bigger events, the aftermath and the slow beginnings of whatever comes next, and it's so very, very satisfying for that.

→ when i see you again (when i'm greeted as a friend) by queenofthestarrrs, rey & luke, ~1kShe's so small. I am super onboard with the theory of Luke being Rey's father and this was both precious and bittersweet. The sense of new beginnings, of so much promise and potential, such wee little lives (baby!Rey, kid!Ben, my heartttt) makes knowing what's coming all the more achey, but in a way that I wouldn't change any of the sweetness at the start.

→ Advice for Those of You Just Starting Your Heroic Journey by igrockspock, leia & everyone, ~1kLeia can think of a lot of things a budding heroine ought to know. Like if you feel a strange, inexplicable connection with a man you just met, don't kiss him. He might be your brother. A fun Leia piece that does a lot to sum up just how much shit she's been through, her experience serving as a warning to those just starting out, but also maybe not, hell, everyone's journey is their own. A delightful fic to read!

→ 5 Times Anakin’s Ghost Gave Unsolicited Parenting Advice by Callioope, anakin & luke & everyone, 2.1kAnakin is very opinionated when it comes to the care of his beloved granddaughter. Another fun piece, one that's a mix of fluff and angst, as Anakin tries to give advice to Luke between the movies and it goes about as well as you'd expect. Oh, Skywalkers.

→ watch me stumble over and over + i never liked the quiet before by QueenWithABeeThrone, anakin & kylo & luke & leia & han, 4k"You tried," says Leia, flatly, when Anakin shows up to tell her of his efforts after telling Luke, "to hit my son on the head." or: Anakin Skywalker during The Force Awakens, the not-completely-serious edition. You know what I need a ton of? Fic that makes me laugh, that makes the movies just a little easier to bear, especially all the pain these characters have to live through. Anakin's Force ghost tries to kick Ben back onto the right path, but it's still Anakin, so it goes about as well as expected, then you add in Han's ghost and it's totally silly but also totally great. I needed the laughs, but it's also sweet at the right moments, they're all a family and sure they're super fucked up, but they're also full of love and I totally would read a dozen more of these fics!

→ Pretty Good: 5 Times Han Solo Came Home by Dorasolo, han & everyone, 2.3kHan knows that his life is flashing before his eyes and he lets it, lost in memories, hopefully just the good ones. His brain starts playing tricks on him, unspooling like a highlight reel of days gone by from an ancient holofilm. He is 65 years old and he feels every beat of every dance he’s done with death over his life, too many to count, blood pounding through his veins. Another bittersweet piece about the moments in Han's life over the last thirty years, contributing to how I felt like... Han's story had an arc, it felt like a good ending point, it felt narratively satisfying, and this helped further flesh out the details, helped to show that there were so many good moments that mad everything worthwhile, even when there's so much heartache in the canon itself. Fluff and angst side by side, both worth reading for.

→ The First Steps by taramidala, rey & luke, ~1kThe first steps are not Rey's alone. A short piece, but I'm enthralled with the potential for everything around that final scene of the movie, there's so much to Luke's character and what he does/doesn't know, what he can sense. This is just the beginning, but it gave me that sense of how things are moving, they're shifting into gear and there are so many things coming, which is a really good feeling.

→ Lonely In Your Company by Darkmagyk, leia & sola, 2k“We were very close.” Sola says, and Leia smiles her politician's smile in response. This is a pre-TFA piece that mentions some of the EU elements (like Jacen and Jaina) but it's also a really beautiful look at Leia's character and the family of her mother and how she doesn't really fit in there, how the disconnect there cannot be breached, even when it's not like they're terrible people. She's just too distant from them and it's such a lovely piece for it.

→ Lucky by cyaneidae, kylo ren & everyone, 1.3k5 times people tell Ben Solo how lucky he is, and 1 time he actually believes it. This is one of those fics that I've been itching to read--just little snippets of his life growing up and a good future for Ben. The ways he was born into a lucky life, the way it built an anger in him, and how he eventually came around. It's very short, I'd have loved to have seen it expanded more, but this is definitely the vein of fic I'm looking for in the fandom, bless.

→ No New Thing by Lisse, rey & anakin, 1.3kRey dreams of a dead man. No, not that one. I loved this piece so much, it's a beautiful look at Rey's character after the main events of the movie, just before finding Luke, and how so many things are different for her now, as well as it's a piece about old ghosts that are newly haunting her. The tiny moments all strung together here paint a picture of something that's all connected and yet... Rey is still finding her way and, oh, it's just a really good piece.

→ Rey/Luke - Rey thinks she owes him sex by Anonymous, luke & rey, 3.6kThey need a Jedi. She tells herself that over the long hours in hyperspace, turning it over and over in her mind, and when she recalls the lost fleet and the capital, the necessities of war, all the rest of it seems very simple. Oh, what a beautiful look at Rey's character and the beginnings of her relationship with Luke. It could have been difficult to put a universe like the Star Wars movie together with the idea that sex is an obligation, especially with a character like Rey, but it works beautifully well here, she feels so entirely true to her character and how she would look at the world. There's a lovely lack of second-hand embarrassment as well, just... a whole lot of "oh my heart I love all of you" feelings for everyone.

→ we are a woven thread, find the strand by averita, leia & everyone, 1.4kFive futures Leia Organa could have had. I adore Leia's character and I love what-ifs and I love the connected web between all these characters, so this was entirely satisfying. It was a lovely piece, especially #3 where Ben wants to be like his mom, so they don't send him away, and my mind started twirling about with the possibilities of such an AU. But also #5. That's all I want in the world. ;__;♥

→ A cup full of questions by victoria_p (musesfool), rey & luke, 1k"Lesson number one: This weapon is your life. Try not to lose it." I didn't expect so many Rey & Luke fics, I'd hoped for just three or four of them, a small handful, but I've gotten more than that and they're all lovely, just as this one is lovely, too. It's a short piece, just the beginnings of their relationship starting from where the end of the movie left off, just the right touches of a little bit awkward and something starting to click into place, just as it should be.

→ heroes and fools (heroes are fools) by cywscross, han/leia & kylo ren & ocs & everyone, 4.1kHan Solo doesn’t die. Instead, he wakes up in medical with his wife beside him and his long-lost daughter’s voice still echoing in his head. I didn't think I would need much OC fic in this fandom, at least not this soon, but I was intrigued by this fic and I wound up really adoring what the author did with it. A sister to Ben, one that was loved but overshadowed by just how much presence Ben took up in their parents' lives, who left to find herself, and everything is... difficult and a little bitter/resentful/awkward but also so much love and I liked this OC and the relationships she had with the people around her. It helps that it's a bit of a fix-it, just a little, and that both Solo children are brilliant and complicated, the characterization of Han and Leia was great, and this fits together with the canon really well. I'd absolutely read more from this universe!

→ strike me down by Merricat_Blackwood, kylo ren & han & obi-wan & others, 6.2k wipwounded by his loss and haunted by an old foe, Kylo Ren deals with the fact that his father is dead, but not gone. Obi-Wan's Force ghost haunts Ben Solo and then drags Han Solo along to haunt him as well and it's just... a great digging into the angst of Kylo Ren's character, just how hard he tries to ignore the light inside himself and to deny that Ben Solo still exists. It's everything I wanted after walking out of the theater, it's everything I love about this emo trash child that I love so much, because he's such a child in his view and yet the fic doesn't shy away from that he's doing legitimately horrible things, it really satisfied me for how determined he is to walk this path, how angry he is, without being too over the top about how ridiculous he is. The two chapters (at the time I read it) captured the feeling of the character from the movie, exploring the struggle in him that I'm still super hungry for. I absolutely want morrrrrre of this one.

→ Try Another Day by nymja, rey & kylo ren + luke + snoke, 3.8kA meeting between two disciples of the Force. Oh, I loved this so much. I'm never quite sure how to articulate what I want from fic that deals with Rey and Kylo, but this fic really hit on whatever it is. There's a connection there, one that's both good and bad, it gets across that there's something there, but it's not really easily labeled, that this isn't about a pairing and not really precisely about family (though, Kylo's family is obviously deeply ingrained in him), but some other Force-drawn connection that works so well. There's so much anger at her and, oh, Rey, standing up in the face of that, determination to stay on her path, the incredibly solidity of her character, how difficult this for her at times, but she stays on her path, it's all just gorgeous.

→ where the current and the heavens collide by plinys, kylo ren & force ghosts, 2kFive ghosts that visit Ben Solo, and one that cannot. I want so many Force ghosts stories, even if they break my heart like this one did. Each little scene is heartbreaking in its own way, as little Ben Solo grows up and winds his way down the path to Kylo Ren. These people he doesn't really know, some trying to help him and some not trying to help him, are all lovely to read, but that last one is just a real kicker and gave me so many ouchy feelings.

→ in the arms of a hurricane by Spineless, finn/rey & luke, 1.3kShe misses Finn like a phantom limb. Training to be a Jedi is not easy; she experiences so many new things so quickly, she wishes she could share them with him. A lovely look at Rey's training with Luke, while she adjusts to everything that's happened, adjusts to being on such a green, rainy world, adjusts to missing Finn more than she expected. It's a good look at her character, especially with all that rain around her suddenly, and it reminds all over again just how much I love Rey and everything about her.

→ left me blind by ZeGabz, kylo ren & rey & luke & poe & finn, 14.5kA scavenger turned Jedi and the Sith acolyte desperate to surpass her in power. Theirs is a tale of tragedy, darkness, and family. Their stories are the same. The endings have yet to be written. This is a series of four fics that I'm recommending together (despite that I loved them all enough to have recommended them separately) that look at the connection between Rey and Kylo Ren, that look at her journey to becoming a Jedi, and it's all wonderfully written. I could hardly tear myself away from the series until I'd finished it, especially the gorgeously tense meetings between Rey and Kylo over the years, the heartbreak of seeing what they could have been like if things hadn't gone to shit, the balance between family and enemies. Rey finding her way, finding her family, that it's never easy, her father and her cousin are such intense presences, but she's more than a match for those presences, and I just. Really, really loved this series.

→ Keep Trying by nymja, luke & kylo ren, ~1kThe first training session between Master and student. SO MUCH CUTE. I never knew how badly I wanted bb!Ben beginning his training with Luke so badly, not until I read this and just fucking melted over the whole thing. So goddamned precious.

→ legacy by apricots, kylo ren & han/leia & luke, 14.4kTwo questions followed him his entire life: What is wrong with him? Why is he like this? I was a little wary that this fic would end up woobifying or justifying Kylo Ren's atrocious actions because of his horrible childhood with uncontrollable Force sensitivity and how he couldn't stop the terrible things from flooding into him as a child, but I honestly didn't get the sense that the fic was saying what he became was justified or okay. It definitely piled on the angst and showed that Ben Solo was failed by a lot of people, but using that to show what a monster he became and not try to soften the edges of that, was absolutely worth the read. It's an ouchy piece, but I have Ben Solo feelings and this fic knew exactly how to get at them, by piling on the physical and emotional whump like it was going out of style, which I ate up like delicious candy.

→ Generational mistakes by owlet, leia & kylo ren & rey & luke & cast, 17kWith all the loss Leia Organa had known, she did not expect to feel to completely gutted by the sight of her son in chains. I feel like, yes, this is the fic I have been waiting for ever since I saw the movie. Ben Solo comes home and it's not easy and there's so much hurt and anger and pain wrapped up in him, but it's hopeful at the same time, it's balanced between not being too easy but not breaking my heart along the way, either. The fic is centered on Leia, so of course it's also centered around her relationship with her son, but I got such a strong, solid presence of her character here, even beyond her relationship with Ben and it was so, so good to read for this character that I've loved for so long. The other characters (like Luke and Rey especially) are there as well, even if we don't see those scenes as much, that it takes all of them to start putting things back together again. But where the fic really shone for me was in the way it didn't shy away from how much hurt there is for everyone here, that these are complicated characters all the way around, that mistakes were made but in the way I believed for each of the characters.

I'm so hungry for "Ben Solo comes home" fic, but it can't be easy, it can't be other people's fault too much, but neither can it be inexplicable what happened to him, I desperately want it to balance the new characters with the old characters, and this fic achieved all of that. It achieved it and maybe made me mist up once or twice during the emotional parts because I could feel the absolute weight of all their grief, it was such a solid hit to my feelings place that, yes, this is everything I wanted. It's redemption for Ben Solo in the way my heart wants and my head will accept, which is not an easy thing to do, but this did it.

→ but for the cause by newsbypostcard, han/leia & kylo ren & luke, 6kThe dark side takes its damned share, but it can never take from her the cause. (Or: five things Leia Organa has lost; something she keeps; and something she gains back.) A look at the span of Leia's life, all that she's lost over the course of it, and the few things she's gained back. The sheer strength and iron will of her character to keep enduring is lovely, the connections she keeps forging, all of it reminds me exactly of why I love this character so much. I want all the Leia fic and this absolutely helped further that!

→ a light beckons home by todreaminscarlet, luke & rey & kylo ren & leia & snoke, 6kIt ends in flashes of light, and in the wreckage, hope is found. // or, the final battle between the dark and the light, and the immediate fall out Oh no feelings. This was a bittersweet look at a possible final showdown with Snoke, between him and Rey and Kylo Ren and Luke, one that felt like I could believe it would go this direction in canon, especially with the gains/losses that happen here. That's what SW is for me often times--it's not all dark, but there's always loss to go with the victory. I got swept up in this one, just as I was supposed to and basically just had a lot of feelings about it.

→ Trial by nymja, rey & luke & kylo ren & anakin, 3.1kLuke takes Rey to face The Cave. Oh, I loved this look at Rey facing the visions and how she deals with that and what it says about her and the tangled web she's been caught up in. I love the strength of character, I love her connections to Luke and Ben and Anakin, I love the themes, the presence of desert and sand around her and the other she sees, I love how beautifully this further weaves her into the fabric of Star Wars and it feels right. So, so satisfying.

→ Second Chance by rollingturtle, leia & rey, 1.2k"Leia braids/styles Rey's hair for her (because if that flashback was any indication, Rey's been wearing the same style of updo for years). Rey absolutely melts under the gentle touch, so Leia starts finding excuses to pamper Rey and give her those little comforts." - SWKinkMeme I am absolutely here for more Leia and Rey interaction, whether they're related or it's only hinted at or not or whatever. Just that someone touches Rey gently and with care, just to braid her hair or comfort her, in that way that Rey probably never had nearly enough of, so that she builds yet another good connection in her life. Seeing that happen with Leia, especially after all Leia has lost and how isolated she could have become, but still keeps reaching out, oh, it does many things to my fannish heart.

→ To be a Good Dad by Yunagirlamy, han/leia & ben solo & anakin & luke, 7.7kHan takes his son, Ben, on a trip with him on the Millennium Falcon. Things start off well, but then Han puts the ship on autopilot so he and Ben can get some rest. Ben can't sleep, though... and things just go downhill from there. I am starving for pre-TFA fic with bb!Ben and his parents, so I snatched this one up to find something that was really, really cute, with Anakin never having gone Dark Side, so their family is much more domestic and it's fluffier, but in that way that I really wanted. Especially because little Ben is still a bit of a terror, he still throws tantrums and trashes things and explodes in a nasty way, but he's a little kid and maybe this universe might be different for him. So, it was this really solid combination of domestic fluff (GIVE ME ALL OF IT) with how Ben still felt like Ben to me and that's all I can ask of fic.

→ the voices speak too loud by todreaminscarlet, ben solo & han/leia & luke, 2.5kBen honestly can’t remember a time when the voices didn’t rattle in his brain. OR, Snoke speaks to Ben early, and the voices grow increasingly harder to ignore. Another pre-TFA fic where Ben hears voices through the Force in his head, ones that slowly manipulate him in ways that he's vulernable to, that isolate him from his family by making him suspicious of them, by encouraging his worst traits, by preying on a kid who is weak to him. And it's a lovely fic in the way that everyone really is trying, there's no villains in here except the obvious one, but you can see exactly where this is all going, and it's sad to watch.

→ Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story by muggles, leia & family, ~1kLeia takes a moment to grieve for all that she's lost. Another short but lovely piece and I will read all the Leia fic, as she grieves and hurts for all that she's lost, yet still finds the strength of character to soldier on. I have such strong Leia feelings and this just made them stronger.

→ disturbance by Merricat_Blackwood, han/leia & ben solo, 2k“I was scared, Dad,” he says in a confessing tone, as though even at four he feels he shouldn't be afraid, that he should somehow be bigger and better than all the things that scare him. Yes, give me all the pre-TFA fic that doesn't 100% break my heart. Just. Like. 50% breaks my heart. Wee little bb!Ben having nightmares and his dad comforting him in the middle of the night, talking to him about things, and making it better and it's lovely for that, it was wonderful and sweet, but then you remember that it's not going to be enough and nothing is ever not sad again. Just as it should be.

→ If Somehow I Could Just Rekindle That by Duck_Life, anakin/pame & luke & leia, ~1kVader gets a glimpse at what could have been. A short fic based on a vision Anakin has (you don't need further context than that) for what his life could have been, which doesn't need to be long to be bittersweet and hard for what could have been but will never be.

→ Stars to Guide You Home by Sholio, rey & luke & finn & poe, 3.6kRey gets migraines. Back in the desert she used to just put up with them. I enjoyed this one a lot, too! Rey with terrible headaches that she soldiers on through, I love the balance of her being an iron woobie but in a way that's not overly dramatic, it just felt like Rey to me. All the more so because she's such a solidly good person who is ready to make emotional connections and she actually does lean into those when the chance comes up, making me love her all the more.